Cookies and memories
by moonlight peach forest
Summary: Hinamori is baking cookies for Hitsugaya and reflects her life after the war. Is the day going to end in the same way it started? A HitsugayaxHinamori oneshot.


Author's note: Here an one-shot about... come on you obviously know who

I don't own Bleach ! You obviously know that too.

* * *

Cookies and memories. 

Hinamori left her pen and sighed in relief. She had finally finished her paperwork and she was free to do anything she wanted for the rest of the afternoon. The young vice-captain of the 5th division started rubbing her neck, which was aching a little, and dive to her sea of thoughts.

"_All that work is done at last! I really want to do something different for the day. It was a hard week with lots of work to be done." _She remained silent for a while putting her index finger in her cheek.

"I know!" she exclaimed happily.

"I can cook something! Oh god I can't remember the last time I 've cooked."

With that as a last thought Hinamori tided her office and left for the division's kitchen.

The kitchens were some of the few rooms inside Seireitei that had modern machines which were only met in the real word. Hinamori opened the door and found no one there. She smiled and started looking for the shelf with the recipes' books. She found them and after reading the titles in their saddles she picked a cookies recipe. She looked at the contents and decided to make some orange cookies (they really exist but they don't have orange inside. The flavor simply reminds of orange).

"Ara! If I remember well those are one of the few sweets that Hitsugaya-kun likes. I can visit him and give him some later." At the mention of the name her cheeks adopted a pink color.

_Hitsugaya! The man__ who had helped her stand in her two feet again._

_The war with Aizen had ended long ago. They had win and everything had been back to their normal, peaceful pace (as peaceful can be the life in Seireitei). However Hinamori couldn't continue her life in the same way the rest shinigami did. She had tried to accept her life without Aizen but it hurted. At the beginning she had denied whole heartily to believe that her captain was acting in his own account. But as the time passed and the time when the war would start was approaching she managed to face the truth. _

_She stopped deceiving herself and decided to stop troubling herself and concentrate in the war. When the war finally ended she founded that she was sunk in a sea of despair, guilt and darkness. She didn't know what to do anymore. She would cry every night and in her dreams she was hunted by shadows. She didn't dare to ask t help from her friends because she was feeling guilty. Especially towards Hitsugaya. She had betrayed their friendship._

_Nevertheless, the help that she was silently seeking for came, and it was in the form of a sort, white haired captain. He had somehow understood her despair and as in an unspoken deal he become her lighthouse._

_He started visiting her in her office to say good morning . She was totally surprised when one day a knock was heard and he entered with his usual frown. She couldn't believe in her eyes but inside her something kicked in hope. He adopted the habit of visiting her daily and every week he walked one stepped further. He was soon found doing the paperwork with her with a light atmosphere hanging around._

_When she was with him it felt like the world was back in order._

_One storming night she couldn't sleep due to her nightmares she decided to go find hoping that he could help her find peace. When he opened the door he raised an eyebrow in question but soon his expression changed while she through herself in his embrace in tears. He stumbled because of the weight and landed in his futon with her on top of him. She tried to restrain her tears for a while but then she let them spill. He didn't make any effort to move her. He just put one hand in her back and stroked gently her back, whispering soft, reassuring words to her. _

_After that night she caught herself thinking about him more and more . Before that she knew that a small blush colored her cheeks every time she saw him. But now it was clear that she was falling in love with him. She somehow found it natural to feel this way for him. They had spent a lifetime (well It's actually deathtime but anyway ) together and she found it unbelievable that once Aizen had had such an important role in her life and not him._

_On top of those he started growing which was very natural. He was soon as tall as Renji. His face remained almost the same but sometimes some hints of fear where visible. He became a man. A handsome man as, she often thought in the past, he had promised._

_He was the center of her world. _

_Another decision of Yamamoto Sou-taichou helped her get rid of gloominess. Ichigo was given the captainship of the 5__th__ division. Despite being strong enough to receive such a high rank, he was still young and quite immature. His reactions reminded her of Renji and always made her lips twist in a smile. What really worried her was that his father visited him frequently and destroyed the office door while he entered. It was scary, funny, frustrating and annoying at the same time._

_She was once again the happy, carefree, smiling girl._

She looked at a clock and switch off the oven. She took a pair of gloves and put out the griddle.

* * *

Matsumoto changed side and felt the warm light beams vanishing. She hesitantly opened her eyes and saw a tall, dark silhouette hanging above her. She immediately screamed and reached for her zanpakouto, when she heard a familiar voice.

"Matsumoto stop acting like a child and gather your thoughts." There was no doubt that this voice belonged to her not-so-little-any more-captain.

"Taichou! You scared me. It's not funny to sneak people like that."

"Not doing the work assigned to you, because you were having a drinking fest isn't funny either." replied Hitsugaya with a scorn.

"I expect you to finish the rest of the work. Otherwise I will have to punish you." With that he departed from the 10th division's office and headed to his private quarters. Matsumoto felt a cold breeze inside the room and shivered.

"Taichou can be so scary sometimes. I suppose that I don't have other choice ,I have to do as he wants. It won't be pleasant to ban me from drinking."

She sat to her office and started doing the paperwork. After a while a knock was heard and Hinamori entered with a box in her hands.

"A! Hello Matsumoto-san."

"Hello Hinamori-san. Are you looking for Taichou?"

"Yes. Do you know where he is?"

"He left for his quarters."

"Arigato gozaimasu."

She left and the silent spread in the room.

"_My instincts tell me that something is about to happen! I hope that Taichou will be able to restrain himself. He is so old and he still hasn't any experience with women." _She thought with a mischievous look in her face. She knew that her Taichou had used a tactic which required too much patience in order to approach Hinamori, while she was close to paranoia. _"He must love her way too much"_

Hinamori knocked cheerfully the door and she waited. It opened and Hitsugaya appeared in the doorstep.

"Hinamori!" he said with a surprised look. "What brings you here?"

"I baked some orange cookies and wanted to bring you some." She replied raising the box she was holding with smiling face. His eyes wided for a brief moment but then he brushed aside and motioned for her to enter. She followed with her heart beating fast. They entered in the small kitchen of his room and he started preparing tea. She took off two cups and placed the cookies in a plate. She then turned and watched his back. When he finished he pour the liquor in the cups and they went back to the main room, and sat to enjoy this supper. She watched him as he took one of the cookies and felt her heart skipping as he nodded, his own way to say that he liked it.

The strange with the two of them was that many times they communicated without telling a word.

"How came and you brought those here." He asked while turning his gaze to her.

"I had some free time and decided to make them. Then I remembered that you liked them and thought to bring some as a way to say thanks." She replied throwing her eyes on the floor. She suddenly heard robes rustling and she looked back at him only to find that he had take a sit besides her.

"Thanks for what ?" he asked calmly.

"For helping me to find myself when I was lost." she answered as she looked in his beautiful aquamarine eyes. His lips twisted slightly.

"I didn't do anything. You did it on your own. You don't have to thank me."

"That's not true!" She exclaimed suddenly. She raised her voice volume and looked at him as if pleading. He wacthed her with a carefull look.

"Back then I was desperately longing for someone to help me stand and move on." Her face was turning warm and red. She could feel it. The never spoken words were being said. The spell which was silently and unconsciously casted between them was breaking. It was time for the words to be spoken clearly.

"I was sinking in a dark sea of fear and deception. I was a ghost of my old self fading away. You came and you extended your hand to pull me out. Me who everyone thought as a lost case and no one didn't dare to speak to. Me … who had betrayed our friendship and …and pointed my sword against you in order to defend a hypothetically dead captain who played with us, like we were puppets. How can you say I did it all by myself?" She whispered with eyes closed. She then felt a hand wipe the tears which had started flowing while she was shouting what she kept inside her all that time.

"You choose to catch that hand and you let me dragged you back at the surface of that lake." She looked at him with watering eyes and then without a warning he pulled her in his strong, warm embrace.

"You might have thought that I would abandon you when you needed someone to hold you. But then I would be the one betraying our friendship. When you pointed your sword at me you did what would be right to be done, in case I was in Aizen's place. So please stop worrying about that. It belongs to the past and we have a future which waits for us."

She remaint as silent as her hiccouches allowed listening to his words, which were healing the last wounds. She hided her face in his chest and whispered her thanks again.

"Baka! Didn't I just tell you that there is no need to thank me?" He asked with a smile in his face and pulled her out his embrace and made her stand still.

"There is one thing left to ask and only you can answer that."

"And what is that?" she asked curiously. She then saw him knelling down and taking her small hand in his own.

"Hinamori Momo will you accept me as your companion in your long journey in this land?" He said seriously. She remained still and silent, her eyes fixed on his face. But that was what her body could express, her insides had exploded like fireworks spreading warmth, happiness and a feeling that she could put in words. She kneeled down in his level and took hid hand in her own and whispered two words.

"I do." Knowing that she never loved him most than now. She saw his face flooding with happiness and they slowly leaned closer to each other for their lips to meet. He put his hand around her small waist and pulled her close to him. She put her arms around his neck and they dived inside the ocean of their love.

Matsumoto smiled mischievously again outside her captain's room.

"I suppose that this mean I can go drink to my hearts contest to celebrate the news."

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Author's note: I'm welcoming all reviews... So please send me some 


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